Hampstead Heath is Cockney Rhyming Slang for Teeth! Hampstead Heath is Cockney slang for Teeth. "Got to go down the dentist to have me 'Ampsteads looked at" Hampstead Heath Hampstead Heath is now the most commonly used rhyming slang for teeth, having taken over from Hounslow Heath which was a pre-1900s expression. Normally shortened to Hampsteads (or sometimes even Hamps). Hampstead Heath itself is a 790 acre area of parkland, hillside and woodland, with spectacular views across the city of London. Cockney Rhyming Slang - an explanation and a list, with their meanings and origins.' - the meaning and origin of this phrase Famous Last Words Browse phrases beginning with: Cockney Rhyming Slang Meaning A type of slang in which a words are replaced by a words or phrases they rhyme with. Origin Rhyming slang has the effect of obscuring the meaning of what is said from outsiders. It isn't clear whether this is intentional, to hide one's meaning from the law, or to exclude outsiders, or whether it is just a form of group bonding.

The way rhyming slang works does tend to exclude those not 'in the know', as the substitution of one word for another often relies on reference to a key phrase, which, for the slang to be understood, must be known jointly by those communicating; for example, to get from 'Hamsteads' to 'teeth', one must be aware of Hampstead Heath. There's no reason to suppose that there was any great conspiracy in the formation of rhyming slang. English speakers, in common with speakers of other languages, enjoy rhyming. Evidence of this are the numerous double-word forms (reduplications), created from nonsense words and coined for no better reason than for the hell of it; for example, 'hoity-toity', higgledy-piggledy', ' namby-pamby ', ' nitty-gritty ', 'itsy-bitsy', etc, etc. Rhyming slang is an exuberant linguistic form and tends to flourish in confident, outgoing communities. That's certainly true of Victorian England, which is where it originated.

The earliest example of rhyming slang that we can find is in the English writer Edward Jerringham Wakefield's, Adventures in New Zealand, 1845, in which he includes an account of the journey from the UK to the Southern Hemisphere: "The profound contempt which the whaler expresses for the 'lubber of a jimmy-grant', as he calls the emigrant." Who Jimmy Grant was isn't clear. The first to record rhyming slang in any systematic way were Ducange Anglicus, in The Vulgar Tongue. A Glossary of Slang, Cant, and Flash Phrases, used in London from 1839 to 1859 and John Camden Hotten, in A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant and Vulgar Words, 1859: Anglicus includes these examples, all dated 1857: Apple and Pears, stairs. Bull and cow, a row. Chevy Chase, the face. There may have been many examples for dictionary makers to record by the 1850s but, like most slang, these were street level terms and not in general usage.

Charles Dickens wrote an article on slang in 'Household Words' in 1853 and made no reference to rhyming slang. Hotten was the first to apply the name 'rhyming slang' to the form, in his 1859 dictionary: "The cant, which has nothing to do with that spoken by the costermongers, is known in Seven Dials and elsewhere as the Rhyming Slang, or the substitution of words and sentences which rhyme with other words intended to be kept secret. I learn that the rhyming slang was introduced about twelve or fifteen years ago." The slang form wasn't known in the USA until late in the 19th century. Here's an item from the Lima Times Democrat, Sept 1894, which is the earliest reference I can find from America. It's in an editorial piece titled 'The Slang of London', which describes rhyming slang at length and is clearly intended for an audience who are new to it: "Rhyming slang is peculiar to England and, I believe, to London." So far, we haven't mentioned 'Cockney', nor you might notice do any of the early citations above.

That's because, although rhyming slang was associated with London, and particularly with London street traders, there never has been anything specifically Cockney about it. Rhyming slang didn't become Cockney Rhyming Slang until long after many of its examples had travelled world-wide. Cockney, according to the strict definition, refers to those born within the sound of Bow Bells. Cockney Rhyming Slang is just shorthand for London or English rhyming slang. As a name, 'Cockney Rhyming Slang' is 20th century, as are the majority of examples of CRS terms. Just as an aside, here's some alternative versions of the supposed derivation of the name Cockney, as given in the 1811 'Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue', Author: Captain Grose et al. Believe of much of this as you see fit: Cockney: A nick name given to the citizens of London, or persons born within the sound of Bow bell, derived from the following story: A citizen of London, being in the country, and hearing a horse neigh, exclaimed, Lord! how that horse laughs!

A by-stander telling him that noise was called NEIGHING, the next morning, when the cock crowed, the citizen to shew he had not forgot what was told him, cried out, Do you hear how the COCK NEIGHS? The king of the cockneys is mentioned among the regulations for the sports and shows formerly held in the Middle Temple on Childermas Day, where he had his officers, a marshal, constable, butler, &c. See DUGDALE'S ORIGINES JURIDICIALES, p. 247. Ray says, the interpretation of the word Cockney, is, a young person coaxed or conquered, made wanton; or a nestle cock, delicately bred and brought up, so as, when arrived a man's estate, to be unable to bear the least hardship. Whatever may be the origin of this appellation, we learn from the following verses, attributed to Hugh Bigot, Earl of Norfolk, that it was in use. in the time of king Henry II. Was I in my castle at Bungay, Fast by the river Waveney, I would not care for the king of Cockney; that is, the king of London.

Rhyming slang has spread to many English-speaking countries, especially those that had strong maritime links with the UK in the 19th century, notably Australia, Ireland and Canada/USA. There's even less justification for the name these days than there was when it was coined. Many examples of CRS clearly originate in other countries, although England, and specifically London, is still the major source. The spread can be shown by phrases that relate to people or places only well-known in a particular country, or ones where the rhyme depends on a regional or national accent; for example: Australia: Flowers and frolics = bollocks (nonsense) or, with an Irish accent, bollicks. Scotland: Corned (beef) = deaf or, in Scotland, deif. USA: Eighty-six = nothing (nix). Lest we forget London, there are several examples that rely on vowel pronunciation or place names of south-east England. E.g.: Khyber pass = arse (elsewhere in England this would rhyme with ass) Hamsteads = Hampstead Heath = teeth Hampton = Hampton Wick = dick/prick Rhyming slang is highly volatile; terms emerge quickly and many don't catch on.

That's especially true recently with the rise of media/celebrity culture and the Internet. There are many lists of CRS terms. Here's a short list of those that are fairly well-established and likely to remain in the language. Many of the early rhymes listed in Hotten and Anglicus have now gone out of use; for example, 'Billy Button - mutton' and Mailstone jailor - tailor'. Those early examples that are still known are indicated below. Apples and pears cockney rhyming slang, australian rhyming slang - cockney and austrlian rhyming slang terms, translations and definitions cockney rhyming slang london cockney rhyming slang words, expressions, meanings, translations, explanations and origins, and australian rhyming slang expressions Cockney rhyming slang is an amusing and interesting part of the English language. Originating in London's East End in the mid-19th century, Cockney rhyming slang uses substitute words, usually two, as a coded alternative for another word. The final word of the substitute phrase rhymes with the word it replaces, for example the cockney rhyming slang for the word 'look' is 'butcher's hook'.

Commonly only the first word of the rhyming slang is used, for example, 'butchers' means 'look', whereby the original meaning can be difficult to guess, and in many cases these single slang words are now widely used by people who are unaware of the cockney-rhyming origins.

For example, the following slang expressions are very commonly used, and yet people do not generally realise they have cockney-rhyming origins: Scarper = go, or run away - originally 'Scapa Flow' = Go Bottle = courage - originally from 'Bottle and glass' = Arse (suggesting a high tolerance of fear, alluding to the tendency of great fear to induce defecation, as in 'pooing your pants') (and in turn from this) Aris = backside or bottom - (from 'Aristotle' = 'Bottle', from 'Bottle and glass' = Arse - which is an example of a secondary slang) Rabbit = talk, chatter - from 'Rabbit and pork' = talk Bread = money - from 'Bread and honey' = money Porky = a lie or fib - from 'Pork pie' = lie There are many more examples of common slang words which are actually cockney-rhyming slang, in the listing below. Rhyming slang began 200 years ago among the London east-end docks builders.

Cockney rhyming slang then developed as a secret language of the London underworld from the 1850s, when villains used the coded speech to confuse police and eavesdroppers. Since then the slang has continued to grow and reflect new trends and wider usage, notably leading to Australian rhyming slang expressions, and American too. Many original cockney rhyming slang words have now entered the language and many users are largely oblivious as to their beginnings. If you want to learn more about cockney rhyming slang, the Cockney Rabbit book below is highly recommended. For additional entertainment try the excellent free online translation site at whoohoo.co.uk where you can translate phrases and emails into cockney rhyming slang (as well as other slang styles). See also the cliches origins section on this website for other amusing and interesting derivations, definitions and origins of expressions and words. See also cockney money slang, money history and other money slang expressions, meanings and origins in the money slang article . The best book I've seen about Cockney rhyming slang is Cockney Rabbit (A Dick'n'Harry Rhyming Slang) by Ray Puxley.

It's a very full dictionary of Cockney rhyming slang, written with humour and lots of useful side information about the roots of these wonderful cockney rhyming words and meanings. Cockney rhyming slang is a significant and colourful presence in the English native language. Many Londoners and British people will be surprised to learn that some of the best known English expressions originated from cockney rhyming slang. This cockney rhyming slang listing is not a full dictionary, it shows the most common expressions and meanings, with cockney rhyming origins, and examples of more recent rhyming slang expressions. If you are easily offended, avert your eyes from the rude ones. Many are also very 'politically incorrect' and/or of a discriminatory or insulting nature, so usage other than for reference, and certainly in day-to-day communications, should generally be avoided. Explanations of old and new interesting or amusing cockney rhyming slang not listed here are always welcome - send missing interesting old or new common cockney rhyming slang expressions, meanings and origins .

cockney rhyming slang meanings and definitions This is not a full list of all cockney rhyming slang expressions and meanings - just a selection of the more interesting expressions, including many that have entered everyday language. How many of these commons expressions did you know were originally derived from cockney rhyming slang?

Adam and Eve - believe ('would you adam and eve it?') Alan Wickers - knickers (of more recent origin, as featured in the film 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels': "keep yer alan's on...") Apples and pears - stairs April (April in Paris) - Aris (from Aristotle - Bottle, from Bottle and glass - Arse) Aris - arse (from Aristotle, see above, or Bottle) Attila (Attila the Hun) - two-one (2i, an upper 2nd class UK university degree) Barnet (Barnet fair) - hair Barney (Barney Rubble) - trouble, now also means argument Basil (Basil Fawlty) - balti (curry) Battle Cruiser - Boozer (public house - apparently used in the film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - 'Battle and Cruiser' and 'Battleship and Cruiser' are other versions, all dating back to the 1930s, first recorded, pre-dated by actual usage) Berk or Burk (Berkeley Hunt/Berkshire Hunt) - (yes you guessed it - now you know what you're really saying when you call someone a Berk

 - sources vary as to whether Berkeley or Berkshire came first.

Burlington Hunt is another less common version) Bird (bird lime) - Time (prison) Boat (boat race) - face Bobble (Bobble hat and scarf) - laugh ("you're having a bobble", ie., you cannot be serious) Bottle (Bottle and glass) - arse (also meaning courage, from the allusion to loss of rectal control under pressure) Bowler Hat - Cat Brahms (Brahms and Liszt) - pissed Brass Tacks - Facts ('let's get down to brass tacks') Brassic (boracic lint) - skint (penniless - skint is a shortening of 'skinned', a metaphorical reference to having nothing) Bread (bread and honey) - money Bristols (Bristol Cities) - titties (breasts) Brown Bread - dead Bubble (Barf/Bath) - laugh ('you 'avin' a bubble?..') Bubble (and Squeak) - Greek (a Greek person), or a magistrate or judge ( beak ) or wife (based on rhyming bubble with trouble, from trouble and strife) (Buckshee is not cockney rhyming slang for 'free', as some sources suggest,

 including here previously.

I am grateful to Huw Thomas for pointing me in the right direction about the actual origins of Buckshee .) Bull and cow - row (argument, not row of beans or row a boat) Butcher's (butcher's hook) - look ('give us butcher's..') Canoes - shoes Chalfonts (Chalfont St Giles) - piles (Haemorrhoids) Charlie (Charlie Hunt) - (yes you guessed it again - remember it next time you call someone a right charlie) Chewy toffee - coffee China (china plate) - mate ('me old china') Christmas crackers - knackers (testicles) Christmas crackered - knackered (worn out, exhausted, broken, etc) Cloud seven - heaven Cobblers (cobblers awls, or cobblers stalls) - Balls (testicles, 'you're talking cobblers') Coco/Cocoa - say so (see variations below) Cream crackers/crackered - knackers/knackered (testicles/worn out - also producing the expression 'creamed' meaning exhausted or beaten) Crust (crust of bread) - head Daisy Roots - boots Deep sea diver - fiver (five pounds, especially a five pound note -

 see money slang ) Desmond (Desmond Tutu) - two-two (2ii, a lower 2nd class UK university degree) Dickie Bird - word Ding dong - sing song (now evolved to mean argument or fight) Dipstick - prick (bet you never knew that was rhyming slang) Dirty Den - ten pounds, particularty a ten pound note (see Dirty Den in the money slang page ) Dog and bone - phone Donald Duck - luck (or fuck) Douglas Hurd - third (third class university degree) or turd D'Oyly Carte - fart Duch (duchess of Fife) - wife ('me old Duch') Duke of Cork - talk Earwig - twig (understand, to catch on - now evolved to mean eavesdrop) Elephants (elephants trunk) - drunk Farmers (farmer Giles) - piles (haemorrhoids) Flounder and dab - cab (taxi-cab - seemingly becoming popular again - this slang originated in the mid-1800s when it would have referred to a horse-drawn cab) Flying duck - (yes you guessed it - and now more commonly evolved back to give the expression 'couldn't give a flying fuck') Frog and Toad

 - road Gary (Gary Glitter) - Bitter (the beer, as in 'a pint of Gary', first recorded 1980s), also Shitter (as in backside or anus - later, from the 1990s, presumably after Gary Glitter's conviction for child pornography offences.) Geoff Hurst - first (a 1st class university degree) German band - hand (particularly used in plural: 'Germans' for hands - apparently German bands were commonly seen in London in the early 1900s - I am grateful to C Isaacson for confirming that 'Germans' was a common expression for hands in 1950s London) Greens (greengages) - wages (money) Ginger (ginger beer) - queer (homosexual) Gipsy's (gipsy's kiss) - piss (urination - this is the noun sense of a piss rather than verb 'to piss'.

First recorded in the 1970s the original usage was for example "I need a gipsy's" although more recently usage can drop the apostrophe-S, so that the word gipsy stands alone to mean piss, and the full expression is inaccurately interpreted as 'gipsy kiss'. Other less common cockney rhyming slang kiss associations meaning piss include French kiss, cuddle and kiss, ta ta kiss, and goodnight kiss.) Grumble (and grunt - also groan and grunt, growl and grunt) - the unmentionable - not generally used as an expletive or reference to the female anatomy, but typically as a term for women or one's wife or partner. Cassells states usage is first recorded in the 1930s.

Half inch - pinch (steal) Hampstead Heath - teeth Hampton Wick - dick or prick (penis - unusually both words of the slang, hampton and wick, have become popular single-word slang terms, and have spawned secondary rhyming slang terms - such as Lionel Hampton - incidentally Hampton Wick is an up-market riverside 'village' area in the SW London borough of Richmond upon Thames) Harry Wragg - fag (cigarette, including a cigarette containing marijuana, as referred to in the Kinks' song 'Harry Rag' - Harry Wragg was a successful British jockey in the 1930-40s and later trainer, 1902-1985) Hillman Hunter - punter (customer - Hillman Hunter was a car from the 1960s) Hit and miss - kiss or piss Holy ghost - toast Iron (iron hoof) - poof (homosexual) Jack Jones - alone, (on your own - 'On your Jack') Jacob's (Crackers) - knackers (testicles) Jam jar - car Jimmy (Jimmy Riddle) - piddle (see more explanation at the cliches origins section) Jimmy Choos - shoes

 (very recent slang, probably since 1996 given the launch of the Jimmy Choo shoe brand in that year, prior to which Jimmy Choo was a couture shoe-maker in London's East End.

Please contact me with your earliest recollections of the Jimmy Choo rhyming slang, and especially if this is commonly shortened to Jimmies, or Jimmy's?..) Joanna - piano (cockney pronunciation of piano would be 'piana') J Arthur (J Arthur Rank) - wank (masturbate) Jodrell Bank - wank Joe Soap - dope (stupid man) Kettle (and hob) - watch (fob watch - Ack M Kelsey - 'Kettle' means 'watch'. A fob is actually a small pocket in the waistline of the trousers or in a waistcoat, in which a pocket-watch would be kept, often connected and secured via a fob chain. The anachronistic nature of the association today provides an example of how language evolves from something recognisable into something seemingly illogical.

For the same reason in years to come people will wonder why we say the 'telephone is ringing', or why flushing the toilet is referred to as 'pulling the chain'.) Khyber (Khyber Pass) - arse Lady Godiva - fiver (£5 see money slang - and especially see how the related 'commodore' = £15 ) Lionel Blairs - flares (flared trousers) Loaf (loaf of bread) - head ('use your loaf') Marbles (marbles and conkers) - bonkers (mad - probably the root of the expression 'lost your marbles' meaning gone mad) Merchant banker - wanker Mother's ruin - gin Micky/Mickey/Mike/Michael (Micky Bliss/Mickey Bliss) - Piss (according to Cassells and other reputable sources this is probably the origin of 'taking the micky/mickey'.

If you know or can suggest who Mickey Bliss/Michael Bliss/Mike Bliss was - 1940s or earlier, please let me know - Separately, mick in this sense might instead be a shortening of the medical word 'micturation' meaning urination, and again I would be grateful for any reference supporting this derivation) Minces (mince pies) - eyes Moby Dick - sick Mutton (Mutt and Jeff) - deaf (originally from an American fictional pair of bungling characters called Mutt and Jeff, popularised by the cartoonist HC 'Bud' Fischer in the 1930s) Nellie Duff - puff (breath, evolved into 'not on your nellie' - puff being breath, and breath being life) Nelson Mandela - Stella (the lager beer, typically 'a Nelson' would equate to a pint of Stella - relatively recent slang) Niagara Falls - balls (testicles) North and south - mouth Nutmeg - leg (leading to the soccer term 'nutmeg', meaning to play the ball between your opponent's legs) Oily rag - fag (cigarette - first recorded in 1930s) Old bag - h

ag (horrible woman - bet you never knew that was rhyming slang) On the floor - poor Orchestra stalls - balls (testicles) Oxo (Oxo cube) - tube (the London Underground train system) Peckham (Peckham Rye) - Tie (as in necktie - incidentally Peckham Rye orginally referred to the parkland in the Peckham area of South-East London, now within the Nunhead and Peckham borough, London SE15.

Much of the parkland remains. Peckham is derived from Old English peac and ham, basically combining peak meaning hill and ham meaning homestead.

The Rye part derives from Middle English rithe and Old English rith, meaning stream.) Pen (pen and ink) - stink Plates of meat - feet Pipe (pipe and drum) - bum Pipe your Eye - cry Plate (plate of ham) - Gam (perform oral sex, from the French term, Gamahucher) Pony (pony and trap) - crap Poppy (poppy red) - bread (- money, from Bread and honey) Porky (pork pie) - lie (fib) Rabbit (rabbit and pork) - talk Radio (Radio Rental) - mental (offensive reference to someone with mental disability or educational/learning difficulties, or less offensively a reference to a person behaving unconventionally or madly, or a situation which is strange or weird or bizarre - Radio Rental is a slight distortion of the UK company name Radio Rentals, a popular provider of TV rental services in the second half of the 20th century) Raspberry (raspberry tart) - fart (evolved to include 'blowing a raspberry' with the tongue) Raspberry ripple - cripple (today completely offensive, although interestingly prior to the mid-1900s the word 'cripple' was not considered an especially

 offensive term - unless of course directed as such - otherwise it was a correct acceptable word for a person unable to walk properly due to physical handicap) Razzmatazz - jazz (evolved to mean general excitement) Richard the Third - turd Rhythm 'n' blues - shoes (shortened to 'rhythms' - in use since the 1980s) Rosie (Rosie Lee) - tea ('cup of rosie') Rubber/rubber dub (Rub-a-dub-dub) - Pub (or club) Ruby (Ruby Murray) - curry Sausage and mash - cash Scarper (Scapa Flow) - go, run away (also derived from Italian slang, parlyaree, where the word 'scarpare' means to escape) Sherman tank - wank Sweaty Sock - Jock (referring to a Scottish man - insulting) Sweeney Todd - Flying Squad (The Sweeney was a big TV police series in the 1970s) Syrup (syrup of fig) - wig (leading to 'golden syrup' meaning a really awful wig) ta-ta - (au revoir - goodbye.

Au revoir is French for goodbye. Note this particular rhyming slang is not substantiated and is included here purely for its interest value in having possible cockney rhyming slang connections or influence. Ta-ta meaning au revoir and goodbye via rhyming slang is suggested or inferred by some sources to be a possible origin or contributory factor in the development of the ta-ta or tar-tar slang for goodbye. The precise origins of ta-ta and similar variations, such as tatty-bye, are unknown, and the cockney rhyming link is not proven and likely to remain merely a possibility. Ta-ta meaning goodbye was first recorded in 1837. Ta-ta has other possible links with the theatrical expression, normally shown as ta-dah. Ta-ta is also mainly linked with nursery slang because it is easier for very young children to say than goodbye.

If you are able to shed any useful light on this matter - i.e., any possible cockney rhyming connections between ta-ta and au revoir and goodbye - please get in touch.) Taters (potatoes in the mould) - cold Tea leaf - thief Tiddly (tiddly wink) - drink (now evolved to mean drunk) Thora Hird - third (3rd class university degree) Threepennies/Thrup'neys (threepenny bits) - tits (see money history and slang for more about thrup'ney bits) Titfer (Tit for tat) - hat Toby jugs - lugs (ears) Tod (Tod Sloane) - on your own, also alone ('on your tod' means on your own) Toe rag - slag (originally meaning a girl of easy virtue, but now evolved to mean an unpleasant person) Tom (tomfoolery) - jewellery ('Tom' now means any stolen goods) Tom and Dick - sick Tom (Tom Tit) - shit Trolley (trolley and truck) - yes you guessed it...

used in the verb sense of fornicating, rather than the oath expletive form (according to Cassell's this also gave rise round 1910 to the naval slang expression of 'trolley-oggling' referring to voyeurism - see also 'off your trolley' ) Trombone - phone Trouble (trouble and strife) - wife Turkish bath - laugh Two and eight - state ('in a right old two and eight') Uncle Dick - sick Vera Lynn - gin (or skin, meaning cigarette rolling paper) Weasel (weasel and stoat) - coat Whistle (whistle and flute) - suit Wick - prick or dick (penis - from Hampton Wick) (Thanks for contributions: Lyndon, Daryle, AP, F Miller, G McLaughlin, R Sennah, M Kelsey, C Isaacson, P Morris, N Sutherland, C Gunderson, R Anderson, C Foster, S Barnard, P Lavery, S Philpott, P Virtue, A Crofts, R Lane, W Harrison, H O'Mahony, N Chamberlain, R Reece, J Martinez, P Burden, P Robinson-Griffin, T Inglis, S L

iscoe [micturation/micky connection], I Barlex.) cockney rhyming slang variations and rhyming slang 'secondaries' and 'tertiaries' These more complex constructions are worthy of special explanation.

Apple - Piss (derivation: Apple and Pip - Sip. Sip has long been backslang for Piss) Aris - Arse (derivation: Aristotle - Bottle. Bottle and Glass - Arse) April - Arse (with anxious or frightened connotations, derivation: April in Paris - Aris. Aristotle - Bottle. Bottle and Glass - Arse) Bunny - Talk (derivation: Bunny - Rabbit. Rabbit and Pork - Talk) Charlie - Berk (derivation: Charlie Smirke, a leading English jockey from the 1930s-50s - Berk. Berk, from Berkeley Hunt (see above), and see more explanation at the cliches origins section.

Cocoa/coco - say so (derivation: unusually uses the rhyming part of coffee and cocoa or tea and cocoa; coco is a distortion, perhaps because people think it relates to Coco the Clown) Colin - Todd (from Tod Sloane - alone, or on your own - thanks N Halsey for reminding me that Colin Todd was well-known England international and club footballer in the 1970s) If anyone has more information/dates/regional usage for Colin Todd meaning 'on your tod' please let me know . Flash/flashy - a show off, showy dresser (derivation: Flash of light - sight - 'what a sight he looked') Grass - informant (derivation: evolved from original Grasshopper - copper - a policeman) Hampton/Wick (Hampton Wick) - prick or dick (penis - see main Hampton Wick entry above - Hampton and Wick each became strongly established slang from the one slang phrase, giving rise - no pun intended - to the jocular names for the male member, Hugh Jampton [ huge hampton], and Lionel Hampton [after the famous vibes-playing jazz musician].

The Hampton Wick slang also lead to expressions to 'dip your wick' [to have sex], and 'get on your/someone's wick' [cause annoyance]. Hampton Wick is an old village riverside area of SW London in the borough of Richmond upon Thames.) Macaroni - crap (to have a crap - derivation: Macaroni - pony. Pony and trap - crap. Also means £25 - 'A Pony' being the old English slang phrase for this sum of money.) Poppy - money or cash (derivation: Poppy red - Bread. Bread and honey - money.) (Thanks to N Halsey, S Hartill, Adam, and J Saunders for contributions) australian rhyming slang Some of these Australian rhyming slang expressions have origins in England. Many have Australian origins. If you know other Australian rhyming slang expressions please send them .

Adrians (Adrian Quist) - pissed (drunk) (Adrian Quist 1913-91, Australian tennis champion of 1936, 1940 and 1948, and prolific doubles winner - including ten consecutive Australian championships with partners Jack Crawford and Don Turnbull, 1936-40 and 1946-50, either side of the 2nd World War. In all Quist won 17 majors including doubles at Wimbledon, US, French and Australian.) After darks - sharks Al Capone - phone Almond rocks - socks Annalise (Annalise Braakensiek, Australian glamour model, pronounced Brak-en-sak) - 'crack, back and sac' (hair removal from intimate male body parts by waxing) Asteroids - haemorroids (piles) Babbler (babbling brook) - cook Barry/Bazza (Barry/Bazza Crocker) - shocker (something awful or shameful - after Australian comedian Barry Crocker, who became a household name in the 1960s-70s.

He also sang the original Neighbours soap opera theme song, and is credited with the expression 'technicolour yawn' meaning vomit, among many and various other comedic achievements.) Bat and ball - stall (a car - quite separately 'bat and ball' are used in the sense of someone taking away or losing his/her bat and ball, being a metaphoric allusion to a childish huff or departure from a group activity or cause) Bag of fruit - suit Barney (Barney Rubble, the Flintstones character) - trouble Bib 'n' bub - pub Billygoat - tote Blood and blister - sister Blundstone (Blundstone Boot is a workman's boot) - ute (Australian and NZ abbreviation of a workman's 'ultility vehicle' - either a sedan/saloon car comprising cab and flat-bed or tray back, or a more rugged US-style 'pick-up' small truck.) Bob Hope - soap/dope (marijuana) Brace and bit - shit, or arguably more commonly tit (breast) Brittos/Britneys (Britney Spears) - beers Bulli pass - arse (Bulli is pronounced Bull-eye) Butchers (butchers hook) - crook/look (Larry

 Hall, Oct 2007 says: "...Butcher's hook in Australian rhyming slang means only crook (in turn meaning sick, off-colour, hung-over), as in for example, '...Struth I'm butchers, I'm as crook as Rookwood...' - Rockwood being the oldest and major Sydney cemetery.

Butcher's hook is never used for 'look' as it is in Cockney slang; Captain Cook is used for 'look'...") Captain Cook - look Cheese and kisses - missus (wife or girlfriend) Charlie (Charlie Wheeler) - woman (sheila) Comic-cuts - guts Country cousin - dozen Dad 'n' Dave - shave Daptoes (Dapto Dogs) - wogs (offensive racist term - Dapto is a Dog track in NSW - the following additional information is provided by Larry Hall, October 2007: "...I was raised in Dapto; a town notable only for its greyhound race-track. The weekly event was known simply as the Dapto dogs. The derogatory term 'Dapto dogs' was used only as a slang euphemism for 'wogs' meaning Mediterraneans, not for blacks. Also 'chockoes' - chocolate frogs.

MacRobertsons chocolates made a small chocolate frog for kids named 'Freddo' so freddo-frogs, or freddoes for short, also became a derogatory term in the post-war immigration period for Italians, Greeks, Yugoslavs, etc...") David Gower - shower (as in a bathroom or changing-room shower - David Gower, English cricketer and great batsman, played many times against Australia.

Many will remember him also for notoriously 'buzzing' the field of play flying a Tiger/Gypsy Moth biplane while his team-mates batted against a Queensland side towards the end of England's 1990-91 tour.) Dead horse - (tomato) sauce Dickory dock - clock Dig in the grave - shave (for example, "a dig in the grave in Gawler Place" - Gawler Place is face - thanks J Tan) Dog and bone - phone Niagaras (Niagara Falls) - balls (testicles) Noah's Ark - shark Now is the hour - shower Oliver Twist - pissed Onka (Onkaparinga) - finger (thus Onkaparingas - fingers - Onkaparinga is the brand name of a high quality Australian wool blanket, ack L Hall.) Optic nerve - perve (pervert)/look (have a look) Oxford scholar - dollar Pat Malone - alone (on my own/on your own) Piccadily - chilly Pot of good cheer - beer Red hot - pot (of beer) Red hots - trots (horse-racing)/(diarrhea) Reginalds (Reg Grundies) - undies (underwear) Rhodes scholar - dollar Rifle range

 - change Rodney Hogg - Bog (toilet or related verb meaning - Rodney Hogg was an Australian fast bowler who played in tests 1978-85.) Rubbity-dub - pub Seppo/Septic tank - yank (apparently a more popular modern alternative to 'tin tank') Siralash - cash Snake's hiss - piss Snag sanga - sausage sandwich (not rhyming slang although it looks like it could be; snag is from snags/snaggers - sausages, probably derived from snag meaning snack) Soda roll - goal Soldiers bold - cold Spanish dancer - cancer Squiz/Squizz/Squizzy - look at - glance at or inspect something discreetly (as in 'have a squiz' or 'have a squizzy' - thought by some to derive from rhyming slang 'little crook' meaning look, after Squizzy Taylor, a notorious Melbourne-based gangster.

According to Wikipedia (Feb 2010) Taylor was once a jockey and so was conceivably a little man. He was certainly a crook. Joseph Leslie Theodore Squizzy' Taylor, 1888-1927, was nicknamed Squizzy because of a droopy ulcerated left eyelid, and apparently because he ran in a 'squizzy' manner, ( for which I'd be grateful to receive explanation) . Squizzy Taylor seems to have become well known in Australia by about 1915. According to Cassells, squiz is Australia and New Zealand slang dating back to the 1910s, and could additionally or instead derive from the word squint, or a combination of squint and quiz. The squint/squiz meaning could of course could be a simpler single reason for Squizzy Taylor's nickname - logically a drooping eyelid equates to a squint - and nothing to do with the way that he ran. Squiz is also an earlier (than 1910) Devonshire expression meaning 'examine critically', and is proposed by Cassells as a possible origin of the Australian slang, which is much less exciting than the gangster connection.

The different spelling of squizz appeared later in Australia/NZ in the 1930s. Like other uncertain origins, squizz and its variations may owe their popularity to more than one source, so even if the Squizzy Taylor 'little crook' rhyming slang derivation theory is not the ultimate explanation, the story arguably helped reinforce usage and wider adoption of the slang. Further to this, I am grateful J Wyatt, who informed me [Mar 2014]: "...I live in Melbourne, Australia, and Squizzy Taylor is well remembered as a violent gangster, and many here would associate the term 'squiz' with him; I always thought it referred to the way he looked at people, not a physical condition. Squizzy was a jockey for a while, he dressed stylishly, and was behind several murders.

He died after a shoot out with a rival in Carlton...") Steak and kidney - Sydney Stock and die - pie, or arguably more commonly tie (neck tie) This and that - hat Tin tank - yank (see also septic tank) Titfer (Tit for tat) - hat To and from - pom Tom Tits - shits (diarrhoea) Trams and trains - brains/drains Tray bits - shits (diarrhoea - in pre-decimal currency days a tray bit or trizza, trizzy was a three-penny coin - see the slang money page glossary of slang money words) Trizzy bits - shits (diarrhoea - see tray bits - a trizzy bit was slang for a threepennny coin) Uncle Willy - silly Wally (Wally Grout, Australian wicket-keeper) - shout (turn to pay, normally to buy a round of drinks) Warwicks (Warwick Farm) - arms (arm) Werris (Werris Creek) - leak (a pee, noun, as in urination, e.g., 'I need a werris...' - Werris Creek is a mining town in inland New South Wales, Australia.)

 Williamstown piers - ears (Williamstown is a port town in the state of Victoria boasting a number of historically significant piers) Woolly woofta - (offensive term for a homosexual) (No) Wucking Furries - (no flipping worries - polite version - actually this is a spoonerism rather than conventional rhyming slang) You beaut - ute (utility vehicle - predates Blundstone by 50 years, ack Larry Hall) Young and old - cold Zubrick - prick (penis - possibly related to Arabic?

If you know please contact us .) (Thanks for contributions: B Criddle, P Hosford, K Mitchell, C Scott, S Yates, T Webster, R Harland, J Brown, J Cox, D Cart, LF, J Duffield, N Laws, K Cooper, G Foley, C Donnolley for the squizz/Squizzy Taylor suggestion, Jay, T Caldwell, J Tan, and particularly thanks to Larry Hall for his many contributions and several helpful corrections.) american rhyming slang expressions?.. Apparently other rhyming slang expressions originated in the USA, although seemingly usage is rather less common than in the UK and Australia, to say the least. This one below is suggested (ack RH) as having originated in 1930s USA. Know any more? Oily rag - hag If you have suggestions or queries about Cockney rhyming slang, Australian rhyming slang or American rhyming slang please contact us .

see also Cockney | Oxford English Dictionary Cockney’s not a language it is only a slang And was originated inna England The first place it was used was over East London… Smiley Culture, ‘Cockney Translation’ (1984) The British rapper Smiley Culture, whose lyrics compared the differing if synonymous languages of black and white East Enders—and which today have been conflated in the new lexis known as Multi-Ethnic London English—was only partially correct. Cockney may not be a fully-fledged language, although it certainly boasts a proportion of the ‘rules’ of grammar and spelling (albeit phonetically) that underpin such linguistic formations, but for all that it is so heavily identified with slang, and especially that tourist delight, Cockney rhyming slang, it is if anything a dialect. London’s own. What is Cockney? The word cockney has resolutely resisted any simple etymology. It is first noted in 1362, when it meant a ‘cock’s egg’—that is, a defective one.

However there was an alternative use, first recorded in Chaucer and defined in the second edition of the OED (1989) as ‘a mother’s darling’; a cockered child, pet, minion; ‘a child tenderly brought up’; hence, a squeamish or effeminate fellow, ‘a milksop’. Hence the equation, presumably coined by self-aggrandizing countrymen, of the weakling with the townsman, a use initially recorded in 1521. And from the general to the specific: in 1600 appeared the first such usage, in which the reference is not merely to the working-class Londoner, with which it would henceforth be allied, but to a Bow-bell Cockney . What is a Cockney? One who has been born within the sound of Bow bells, a reference not, as often believed, to the eastern suburb of Bow, but to the church of Saint Mary le Bow, Cheapside, in the City of London.

Further to a study carried out in 2000 to see how far the Bow Bells could be heard, it was estimated that they would have been audible six miles to the east, five to the north, three to the south, and four to the west, an area that covers Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Spitalfields, Stepney, Wapping, Limehouse, Poplar, Millwall, Hackney, Hoxton, Shoreditch, Bow, and Mile End, as well as Bermondsey, south of the River Thames. Given the post-war emigration of many Cockneys to Essex, that area can now be seen as substantially larger. Nor were the original Cockneys invariably working class. All sorts of individuals would once have spoken the London dialect, even if the great push for linguistic ‘purity’ during the seventeenth and eighteenth century prohibited such ‘vulgarisms’ from the aspirant middle class. The OED‘s first recorded use of Cockney language is dated 1776. But it has been suggested that a Cockney style of speech is much older, with Matthews offering examples from the sixteenth century onwards (William Matthews, Cockney Past and Present, 1938).

Shakespeare is among those he quotes, although his Cockneyisms are far from East Enders. Indeed, early Cockney is primarily a matter of pronunciation, as reverse-engineered from the recorded spelling of words such as frust (thrust), farding (farthing), anoder (another), and so on. The nineteenth century saw the first wholesale attempt to record Cockney as it was spoken. The low-life episodes of Pierce Egan’s Life in London (1821) take his heroes deep into the East End and its speech. London’s great chronicler Charles Dickens , notably with Sam Weller and his father, is unsurprisingly keen on setting down the sound of Cockney speech, most obviously in the substitution of ‘v’ for ‘w’ and vice versa. The pioneering sociologist Henry Mayhew recorded his impoverished or criminal interviewees in much the same style. Dickens at least offers an implied moral judgement on those who drop their aitches and reverse their v’s and w’s: irrespective of their background ‘virtuous’ characters, such as Oliver Twist and Nancy, never stray from standard English. It is left to Sykes and the Dodger to display the author’s underworld knowledge.

Yet ‘Dickensian’ Cockney was short-lived. By the century’s end a new school of Cockney novelists—notably William Pett Ridge , Edwin Pugh, and Arthur Morrison—had emerged. It is ‘their’ Cockneyisms that are far more like what one hears today. At much the same time London’s music hall was dominated by stars such as Albert Chevalier , Gus Elen, Marie Lloyd or Bessie Bellwood, all of whom promoted themselves as embodying the lives of the Cockneys who made up their audiences. Moreover they did so with songs imbued with that audience’s home-grown language. Back to top Rhyming slang If there is a stereotype of what the world sees as ‘typically Cockney’ then it is undoubtedly rhyming slang. While the creation myths of that lexis differ, it was certainly popular among the early nineteenth-century Cockney costermongers.

The original rhyming slang, which was a conscious attempt to mystify the uninitiated, depended on the omission of the rhyming element, for example: ‘Barnet fair’ / ‘hair’ (1857) to barnet (1931); ‘china plate’ / ‘mate’ (1880) to china (1925); ‘Hampstead Heath’ / ‘teeth’ (1887) to Hampsteads (1932); and ‘Sweeney Todd’ / ‘flying squad’ (1938) to Sweeney (1967). However this was by no means a rule, and there exist a number of terms in which the entire compound is pronounced — hence Adam-and-Eve / ‘believe’ (1925), cocoa / ‘say so’ (1936), or tea-leaf / ‘thief’ (1903). Rhyming slang persists today, though how ‘Cockney’ such artificial constructs as ‘Posh and Becks: sex’ or ‘Germaine Greer: beer’ may be is at best debatable.

Like Routemaster buses and black cabs, it is an essential part of London’s tourist-orientated image. Cockney survives, but not without change. If one can elicit a single pattern then it is the movement beyond purely working-class speech. Mockney (1989) has been adopted by a growing spectrum of the otherwise middle-class and reasonably well-heeled young, As an accent it resembles the more formal concept of Estuary English which was first recorded in 1984 and defined by the OED as ‘a type of accent identified as spreading outwards from London, mainly into the south-east of England, and containing features of both received pronunciation and such regional accents as Cockney’. And since then, at least among the under-thirties, both working- and middle-class, there is Multi-Ethnic London English, a dialect that reflects the city’s multicultural makeup, and blends terms from mainstream slang, the Caribbean and American rap, and of course London’s own Cockney.

Further reading on Cockney Julian Franklyn, The Cockney: a Survey of London Life and Language (1953) Jonathon Green, Cassell Book of Rhyming Slang (2000) William Matthews, Cockney Past and Present. A Short History of the Dialect of London (1938) Peter Wright, Cockney Dialect and Slang (1981) Rhyming Slang Rhyming Slang I am often asked, especially by American readers, to explain Cockney rhyming slang. Nobody really knows its origin. It was said to be the London criminals' way of conversing without the police knowing what they were saying; but since the prime users of it, other than criminals, are the police, it doesn't seem to have worked! The idea is to rhyme the word you want with a phrase, and then say only the non-rhyming part of the phrase. So for instance 'teeth' become 'Hampsteads' via 'Hampstead Heath'.

Question: In cockney rhyming slang what are hampsteads
Answer: Teeth